The Reign of the Alliance
by Feanfyr
Summary: In an alternate reality where the world is forced under the dictatorship of the Alliance, the spirits have all but ceased to exist- the few whom remain either live in hiding or have asimilated themselves as part of the Alliance's rule. Manny, however, has one ace up his sleave- a new spirit by the name of Jack Frost, a boy who has been kept secret for years until the Soul Shepherd
1. Chapter 1

**The Reign of the Alliance **  
**Act Ø **  
**The Boy In The Ice**

* * *

Wind howled angrily, sending harmful shards of ice flying, perfectly capable of cutting any exposed flesh, and kicking up thick, blinding clouds of snow. One person, however, braved the strong winds, moving steadily deeper into the heart of the storm with the moon's beams the only light. The person was a male teen with pale-grey skin that was marred by a multitude of stitches prominent ones seen being one circling the throat and one that cut through the face, across the bridge of the nose and both cheeks luminescent red eyes squinted through messy silver hair. The teen carried a small cage that held an unlit jack o'lantern, he wore no shoes and his long sleeved shirt- dark, almost muddy, red with black stripes- was tattered and torn, revealing a frayed black tank-top, the sturdiest piece of clothing were the black pants that clung to his body.

A piece of ice cut through his cheek and the teen's mouth- that had minor stitches splayed about it- pulled down into a frown. "Manny, how much farther?"

The moon's light grew stronger as an older voice echoed faintly over the raging wind, "The cave entrance is ahead, the snow is blocking your view."

The teen nodded, setting his jaw as he forced his chilled and aching body to move faster, almost falling over when the wind suddenly cut off as he entered the cave. "Etzli, Shine." He commanded, the jack o'lantern immediately lighting with a glowing orange flame that lit the surrounding area, casting warm orange glow on the cave as he moved deeper.

"Master?" The jack o'lantern, Etzli, spoke causing the light to grow when the mouth opened to reveal more of the flame. "Where are we?"

The teen glanced at the lantern, "We are in the Forbidden Lands, specifically the Forgotten Ice Caverns."

The orange flame lightened to yellow, "Why? Did a Mother stray as she looked for her lost child?"

"No," the teen answered, having closed his eyes for a second. "You know that we no longer are able to shepherd souls unless we are given express permission to."

The flame bled to red, the lantern's eyes narrowing angrily and spat. "That bastard Alliance has no fucking business interfering with the souls of the departed! Only you, the Moon and the Reaper are able to!"

"I know Etzli," the teen sighed irritably, causing the red flame to flinch back into orange. "I will personally shepherd them to the deepest levels of hell when they fall. For now, we are to sow the seeds of rebellion. Here- Etzli, Flare."

Etzli's flame shot sparks, creating four other flames that spread out in the cavern, illuminating the ice-encased occupant. The occupant was male with white hair and pale skin- although his was more snow like then the first teen's greyish hue- a pair of worn brown trousers, a loose white woolen shirt and had a shepherd's crook clutched tightly in his right hand.

"Etzli, Awaken." The first teen commanded.

"As you wish Master." The lantern's flame jumped from it, moving toward the ice and hovering before the frozen teen. The flame turned white with a blue tinge before moving through the ice, melting it as it did, and phasing into the teen's chest before jerking back out when the body came to life with a loud gasping breath, the flame turned its origonal orange before returning to its lantern- flickering slightly with a purple tinge at its edges. "I loath dealing with Ice oriented souls, they always get me sick."

"Quiet Etzli." The teen ordered, watching as the other teen slowly woke himself. "Jack Frost, we have been waiting."

The formerly frozen teen blinked blue eyes, muttering quietly to himself in confusion. "Jack Frost? Is that my name?" The teen frowned at the lantern carrier. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"My name is Sam Hain," the lantern carrying teen answered with a wry grin. "It is time for you be awoken and I, as the Soul Shepherd, am the only one capable of doing so. Goodbye Jack Frost. Etzli, Open."

Jack's eyes widen the flames that had been passively floating about the cavern formed a square, fire trickling between them to form a box before burning across the empty middle, leaving an open doorway that showed a graveyard. "W-wait!"

Sam glanced back at the other, "The Alliance is messing with things they have no understanding of, I must put a stop to it. Grim will be here shortly to inform you of all that you need to know. I am certain we shall meet again in the future Jack Frost." With that Sam walked through the doorway, the gate folding into itself once the teen passed through, sending out a spark that flickered into a small blue flame that hovered near Jack, becoming the only source of light in the cavern.

* * *

_**My first story, so please be gentle.**_

_**Also, can anyone guess who Sam would be called if the world was like our own?**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Act I **

**Grim **

**Or In Which Death Fails At Giving History Lectures And Interacting With Anyone Besides Sam**

* * *

What seemed like months after Sam had left, though only nearing a day in actuality, Jack heared a distant song comming closer. When it was close enough to make out the words a male teen appeared, the teen looked similar to Sam Hain, although without any stitches, and where the eyes should have been white had turned black. He wore a black coat that billowed open in frayed cloth where legs should have been, the coat had blood red inside- revealed most prominently in the unused hood and the rolled up sleaves- and a multitued of pockets. Black boned skeletal arms acted almost as gloves, black headphones- with red skulls- rested proudly againt his ears as a skull mask was displayed on the side of his head, finally was the black bladed, red handled scythe that rested casually against the teen's shoulder.

_"Do you ever think as the hearse goes by, _  
_That you will be the next to die? _  
_They cover you up in a big white sheet, _  
_Then bury you about six feet deep. _  
_They put you in a big black box, _  
_Then cover you up with dirt and rocks. _  
_It all goes well for about a week, _  
_Then your coffin begins to lea-"_

The song cut off as the headphones were pulled down to lay against the teen's neck, "Sorry about that, Sam just mentioned the song an this is the first time I had the chance to listen to it." The teen said somewhat sheepishly, the hand that wasn't supporting his scythe musing up his hair. "I'm Thanatos G. Reaper, you can call me Grim- only enemies call me Thanatos and the uneducated title me The Reaper."

"Jack Frost." He offered hesitantly, the other's eyes creeping him out almost as much as the other's legless state. "Sam mentioned an Allia- I'm sorry, but why are your eyes black and how come you have no legs?"

Grim regarded him with a look of great amusement, "Not all of us enjoy the feel of ice on our feet Snow Minder," the amusement vanished with a look of solemness. "The Alliance has been meddling with things they should not- they have, in laymens terms, tainted death."

"A-alright," Jack stumbled slightly, before shaking his head. "What is the Alliance? I never heard of it before, in fact- what year is it?"

"471 D.R.A. that is the four hundred and seventy first year During the Reign of the Alliance." Grim answered, frowning down at his body until he formed legs- that were covered in black pants- which crossed as he sat down, the scythe laying across his lap. "You might want to sit down, Snow Minder, you are about to go through a history lesson. First, what major event was going on during your before time?"

"My before time?" Jack frowned as he sat across from the other, mimicking the other's position.

"Your life before you became a spirit-" Grim cut off, eyes narrowing when the other only looked on in confusion. "Lapin, come!"

An echoing howl sounded along with glanging chains as the ground between the two distorted then upturned as a dog-like creature crawled from the floor, distant wailings of hundreds upon thousands of voices faintly rising from the opening. The creature was thin, emanciated even, with short black fur that would be mistaken for skin if not for how it thickened at the back of it's neck and snaked along it's spine. The creature had four metal cuffs with trailing chains clasping each of it's legs and a matching collar, although the chain was not as long and it had a tag that bore the name 'Lapin' proudly. The most shocking part, aside from it's glowing red eyes that was more like luminescent gas that stayed within the eye sockets rather then the actual eyeballs, was the animal skeleton that it wore as a kind of bone armor.

The creature started in an echoing growl, kneeling before Grim. "Lapin, Fetch Moire." The creature gave a cross between a bark and a chuff, chained tag clinking against the bone armor as it dove into it's hole, reappearing moments later with a black, leather bound book with yellowing pages. "Good boy." Grim patted the creature's head, briefly. "Lapin, Return."

"I may not know a lot about what is going on, but that is definately no rabbit." Jack inputted once Lapin delved into the hole once more, though this time it closed afterwords.

Grim made no comment, though he gave a twisted grin as he picked up his scythe lashing out with a quick efficiancy that is derived from years of practice. Jack yelped but the, now bloodied scythe, was already pulled away, pressed to the exposed pages of 'Moire', the book absorbing the blood until the blade was clean once more. "Moire, Identify."

"Jack Frost, Winter Shepherd." The book informed aloud in a distinctly female voice, startling Jack- who's cut had healed already. "Formerly Jackson Overland Frost. An only son with one female sibling and two parents. Died 1712 H.S. at the human age of seventeen. Lived in 'Colonial America'. Various non-positive actions carried out yet none of true ill intentions. Final act of saving sibling would have allowed for admittance to the Land of the Eternals. Identification Complete."

"1712 H.S.?" Grim mused, closing the book and stowing it in his coat.

"What the hell?" Jack gapped, taking in the fact that a book just spoke. "Books don't talk!"

Grim shrugged, "Moire's not just a book, she's a bit like a Grimoire, Scrying mirror and familiar rolled into one. If you want some more actual information on your past self you need to pay a visit to the K.O.M."

"Com?" Jack blinked.

Grim shook his head, "K-O-M. It's easier to say then the Keeper of Memories." He shrugged, settling himself. "The colonies you lived in rebelled against the british, created their own little country, abolished slavery after civil war, went through a couple of World Wars, delt with a Cold War. That's all normal, it's what happened after the Cold War that lead to the Alliance. The world came close to nuclear war which, obviously, scared quite a lot of people and these two people- a set of twins named Richard and David Lynch- manipulated this fear with promises of lasting peace- 'the whole nine yards' I believe.  
It started out as something that no one paid attention to, everything they did was peaceful- they made spectacular break throughs in medicine and non-violent technology, they even liberated quite a few countries. No one even noticed how much influence they were gaining, at least not until they had basically all of asia in their pocket. The countries banned together under the two when opposition started to arise and viola, we have World War Three. The Alliance won, obviously, but Canada and Russia- and the United States to a lessor extent due to Alaska- did last a good three years before they were also subdued completely.  
Two hundred yea-"

"Gri-"

"I have to go." Grim announced suddenly, shooting to his feet. "What the fuck are they thinking-! Lapin-! Come! Open! Fetch Jinx! Return!"

"What the fuck!" A male teen shouted angrily, glaring at Grim as he rubbed where Lapin had bit to drag him there before disapearing. The teen had black hair but blue eyes and was in a state of undress- a towel wrapped around his waist as he dripped water over tan skin.

"Watch him," Grim answered, pointing at Jack before stepping through the gate- a black metal archway that erupted from the ground- which disapeared once he was through.

* * *

_**Sam would be Halloween, his title in here is "Soul Shepherd". Can anyone guess who the Keeper of Memories is? or Jinx?**_

_**The next has Jinx- who will be better with others the Grim.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Act II **  
**Leaving The Cave **

* * *

"I hate him." The teen snarled, "Kartal! Bring clothes!" An almost indignant squawk sounded momently before a large pile of clothing- not all of them even male clothing- fell onto the teen with a crow appearing an instant later.

The animal took one look at the cursing, flailing teen before landing on the, not so subtly, snickering Jack, letting out a trill. "It is a pleasure to meet one whom appreciates my practices, my oh so magnificent master has shown great disaproval for them. I am Karr Terringson Lightwing. Or simply Kartal."

"Jack Frost, a pleasure." Jack responded a tad dryly, raising his hand to give an odd handshake that consisted of Kartal's talon's wrapping around his fingers as his wrist twisted about awkwardly to componsate for the spastic claw movements.

"Aha!" The teen shouted triumphantly, digging himself out of the pile to reveal that he now wore dark blue pants with a purple shirt. "I knew you did these things on purpose, you conniving crow!"

Kartal preened, cooing in reply. "You complement me so, Master."

"I thought I was your 'Tasker', what happened?" The teen snorted then turned to Jack. "My name is Axel Jinx, more commonly refered to as Trickster. What are you doing here?" Axel asked, peering around the dark ice cavern with a wrinkled nose.

Jack rose an eyebrow, "Why do you not like it? I spent quite a few decades trying to get the décor right."

"It certainly shows," Axel responded dryly, "I have never seen such magnificently scuplted stalagmites."

Jack gave an exagerated bow, "Why thank you for the compliment, kind sir."

"Tis no problem, fair maiden." Axel replied, kneeling before the other and giving his hand a kiss with exageration that matched his bow.

"Axel," Kartal said with the horrified urgancy that comes when someone has just remembered something vitally important. "The Book Keeper!"

Axel's eyes widened as he swore, "Shit! I forgot about that! Kartal, grow."

"Whoa," Jack breathed as Kartal's body exploded in a whirlwind of feathers that dispersed to show Kartal the size of a horse, if not larger. "Hey!"

Axel glanced at the winter spirit whom he had dragged to his familiar's side, offering a half-hearted smirk. "I apologise for my grotesquely ungentleman like mannerisms my fair maiden." He said, ignoring Jack's mutter of 'More than one syllable, I am so proud', before pushing the other onto the giant bird's back, climbing on infront of the other afterwards. "Kartal, to the Library- swift and silent."

"As you wish, oh mighty Tasker." Kartal crowed snidely, taking flight and charging the shadow covered wall, letting out a crooning laugh at Jack's yelp. The shadows jumped eagerly engulfing them into itks inky blackness, enveloping them in an almost hug-like jesture before spitting them out into the moon-lit night outside.

Kartal's wings gave powerful flaps, causing to ascend at a rappid pace as Axel started speaking, "What did Grim tell you!?"

"A third world war and the Lynch brothers taking over to create the Alliance!" Jack shouted back over the wind, gleefully eying the passing landscape.

Axel scoffed, "Of course he would only tell you the human side." He grumbled before rising his voice once more to be heard better. "The Immortal War started before the Lynch brothers rose to power! Hmm...how to begin...Let's see...Ah!  
An immortal by the name of Pitch Black, known more commonly as the 'Boogieman', has always been resentful towards other immortals due to his job and lack of recognition. Pitch was to instill fear into people, so they may be cautious and not recklessly lose their lives, he was intended to be respected and accepted for his duty as Grim is. This was not so; Grim is death and thus an unavoidable truth in life, he is something- someone we have all accepted due to our dying before being reborn as immortals. Fear is something many people avoid, it is treated as an enemy to be fought off before it consumes you or something to be ignored like a shameful secret carefully stowed away, with it's embodiment being treated the same.  
Pitch's job poisoned him to where he preyed on children, the main focus of his duties as adults have grown to be cautious, and the Guardians of Childhood- named such as their jobs center around children- stopped him before he did much harm. So Pitch, injured in more than one way, retreated into darkness as he plotted and planned out his revenge. Initially he tried to enlist the Creeper Twins' help, Sam Hain and Grim Reaper. Sam Hain because he beleived the creeper's job was centered around fear, Grim because, well, who really wants to be in a war where Death is on the other side?  
Grim Reaper refuses to choose sides in wars as he says that, 'Death is fair where life is not. Death claims all in the same manner even iif life chooses to depart from it's children in different ways.' And even if he were to choose a side, it would be the one that Sam Hain chooses- he would never be able to go against Sam Hain.  
Now where Grim is all about equality, Sam Hain, dispite his gennerally apathetic display, is all about empathy. Sam Hain is empathic, it helps him choose which souls should be allowed to walk the earth for a brief time period. Hain used to be a perfectly cheerful person- even if he still looked creepy- as he had only interacted with the souls who resided in the Lands of the Eternals...erm...that's what humans called Haven- Heaven?  
Th change occured when Hain first had to ferry a soul to the Realm of the Damned- Hell I believe it's called- normally the Damned's Keeper sets about procuring the tainted souls but there was an uprising that caused the previous Keeper's death as a new one took his place, this ment the new Keeper didn't know how to ferry souls and, consequently, the job fell to Hain. An empath in the Damned Lands...it didn't go well for Hain- he ended up havin a breakdown once he got back, Grim helped him and that's what actually lead to their friendship.  
Anyways, after that Hain detatched himself and became how he is now just so he could deal with journying to the Damned Lands." Axel fell silent for a moment before smacking his forehead. "That wasn't what I was telling you about-...where did I leave off before I strayed?"

Jack snorted, "Does that happen often? You were saying that Pitch failed recruiting Sam and Grim."

"No!" Axel denied, ignoring Kartal's laughing disagreement and the flush creeping over his flesh that agreed with the bird. "Okay...  
After that Pitch went to Johnny 13- ever heard of Friday the Thirteenth?- who did join his cause. Both went after Chance- the leprechaun- and they won. I'm not sure how but when they won the two were able to twist Chance so that his darkness became more prominent- Hain mentioned something about them tainting souls with their own inner darkness. So their side had Fear, Luck and...erm...Anti-Luck?  
They went for Valen H. Tine- that's Cupid- because he deals with relationships and would be able to influence emotions so that you loved them and were devoted to their cause. Through these means the brought many of the lesser immortals to their side, like Bigfoot and Nessie, but we were still holding our own.  
Then they found Alexandria Folger, the Book Keeper. She lives in the Forgotten Library, Tomb of Knowledge, where she has every single piece of writting that has ever existed. It's also where the Book of Immortals is kept. This book is a self-updating file of every immortal in existance- Name, strengths, weeknesses, powers, location- and once they got that it was only a matter of methodically going through it to capture every immortal.  
That swung the war into their favor, only a small pocket was left- we mad a bid to get the book, it didn't go as intended. We were only able to rip out our pages. Oceania was poisoned and is currently catamos, Hain and Grim became partially tied to them, and the big four semi-defected so they could remain near the children- as Pitch had allied himself to the Lynch brothers. Added to that is Mother Nature's sickness as she has to deal with nature all but consumed and having to do Oceania and your duties along with helping maintain our little hidey-hole, though the other seasons help."

"So," Jack drawled in a way that caused the other to twitch. "We're going to sneak into a place, which will likely be heavily guarded, that you, along with various others, previously failed at, in hopes of swiping a book from a powerful enemy?"

Axel cringed, because when put like that..."Er...yes..?"

"Well," Jack said, a smirk growing on his face. "I do believe I have no problems with this plan- it seems fun."

Axel let out a startled laugh, "Then I believe we'll get along swimmingly."

"Great," Kartal grumbled as he decended into the cave, diving through the shadows to come out into a wide open cavern and landing on the ground, shrinking so he could rest on Axel's shoulder once they climbed off. "Now I have two reckless idiots to look after."


End file.
